admin NORRIS MOREY, senior member of the law firm of Morey, Bosley & Morey, is an eminent lawyer and citizen of Buffalo, where he has practiced his profession for forty years. Records of the Morey family appear at an early period in the Colonial history of New England. The spelling of the name exhibits the diversity which is common to that time, but finally assumes two distinct and generally permanent forms, Morey and Mowry, the former prevailing among the representatives of the family in Plymouth, Mass., and in Southern Rhode Island, the latter in Boston.
Roger Morey of Plymouth, Salem and Providence, was the founder, in America, of the branch of the family
He was a follower of Roger Williams, and the evidence goes to show that they both sailed o from England in the ship “Lion,” which left Bristol December 1, 1630, and arrived at Boston February 5, 1631. Roger Morey’s wife was Mary, daughter of John and Margery Johnson. Roger Morey became a landholder of Salem, and in 1643 removed to Providence, R. I.
Jonathan Morey, son of Roger, was born in 1637. He married in 1659 Mary, widow of Richard Foster, and after her death married his second wife, Hannah, whose maiden surname is unknown.
Jonathan Morey (2), son of the preceding, married Hannah Bourne in Plymouth. They were the parents of nine children. Their fifth child was Jonathan Morey (3), born in 1699, married Elizabeth Swift in 1725. Thomas Morey, second son of Jonathan Morey (3), and Elizabeth Swift, was born in 1732. He emigrated from Rhode Island to New York State at the beginning of the Revolutionary period. In the Calendar of the New York Historical MSS. his name is given as one of the signers of the “Association,” June, 1775. Prior to 1778 he was a resident of Albany County, and a member of the Thirteenth Albany County Regiment, under Col. Van Vechten. Later he bought one hundred acres of land in Milton, Saratoga County, and established himself as a farmer. He married three times, but the maiden names of his first two wives are unknown. In his will, drawn in 1798 and proved in 1810, he mentions his wife, Sarah, and five children.
Samuel Morey, third son of Thomas, was born June 14, 1770, and lived in Greenfield, N. Y. He married October 8, 1794, Mary Freeman, who died April 30, 1813, and he married in 1814 Mrs. Ruth Elmes. Samuel Morey was for some years a miller and farmer in Greenfield. Thence he removed to Fabius, N. Y., where he owned a farm and was justice of the peace. In 1832-3 he removed to Cazenovia, N. Y., where he died March 10, 1852.
Joseph Morey, eldest son of Samuel Morey and Mary Freeman, was born January 24, 1796. He married October 16, 1823, Anna C. Kinney. Their children were: Emily, born August 22, 1824, died September 14, 1824; Edwin, born October 19, 1825; Reuben, born March 22, 1828, died September 10, 1828; Samuel, born August 1, 1829; William F., born September 20, 1831; Ellen, born November 20, 1833, died January 1, 1834; Elias W., born January 7, 1886; Norris, born July 20, 1838; Horace, born December 1, 1840; Ann Maria, born February 25, 1843, and Eliza Jane, born October 20, 1846.
Norris Morey of Buffalo, son of Joseph Morey and Anna C. Kinney, is seventh in the line of descent from Roger Morey, the immigrant ancestor.
Mr. Morey was born in Brant, Erie County, N. Y., July 20, 1838, being the son of Joseph Morey, a farmer and well-known resident of that place. He received his education in the public schools, and at Oberlin College, O., from which institution he was graduated in 1863. His college career was interrupted by the Civil War, and he served in the Union army in 1861 and 1862, later re-enlisting and continuing in 1864-65. Deciding to enter the law, he pursued a course in the Albany Law School, and in 1866 was admitted to the bar. The same year he removed to Buffalo.
In 1870-71 Mr. Morey was Assistant City Attorney of Buffalo, and from 1872 to 1874 Assistant District Attorney of Erie County. In 1882 the Republican City Convention nominated him for Mayor, but for professional reasons he declined the proffered honor.
Mr. Morey was in 1885 and 1886 chairman of a committee of nine who framed new rules for the guidance of Republican caucuses and conventions in Erie County, these regulations being designed for the protection of the rights of the voters at primaries and to secure proper representation of the people at Republican conventions. The rules were adopted by the Republican County Convention of 1886, and proved very effective in securing the objects for which they were intended. In the winter of 1892-93 Mr. Morey, representing various committees on cities, at Albany, in behalf of the repeal of certain bills, popularly known as “sneak legislation,” which had been hastily passed by the Legislature, and which had changed, in an extraordinary and unjustifiable manner the political control of the Buffalo Police Board. The outcome was a remarkable uprising of public opinion, which registered itself by a great political change at the next city election.
In recent years Mr. Morey’s activities have been mainly devoted to his law practice. June 3rd, 1868, Mr. Morey was united in marriage to Annette Williams of Avon, Ohio, who was deceased January 12th, 1899. To this union were born the following children: Isabel E., the wife of Edward A. Eames of Buffalo, who have one child, Edward W. Eames II.; Joseph H., an attorney-at-law of the firm of Morey, Bosley & Morey of Buffalo; Arthur N., and Howard W. Joseph H. Morey married Katrina Van Tassel Williams, and they, have one son, William Irving Morey.
SOURCE: Memorial and Family History of Erie County New York; Volume I